


Hearthbeat

by Naramyon



Series: Scribbler's Notebook [4]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Drabble, Fiction, Urban Fantasy, modern fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-11-05 23:06:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11023488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naramyon/pseuds/Naramyon
Summary: winterwombat:When magic starts to return to the modern world, barely anyone notices. It doesn’t look anything like what we imagine. People don’t suddenly start developing magic powers, casting spells, or turning into elves and dwarves. In fact, people don’t really change at all, not at first.  It turns out that the magic isn’t even here for us. It’s here for what we’ve built.





	Hearthbeat

**Author's Note:**

> This was my response to @winterwombat's Modern Fantasy post. 
> 
> Read the full [When Magic Starts to Return to the Modern World](http://winterwombat.tumblr.com/post/153093940059/when-magic-starts-to-return-to-the-modern-world) thread on Tumblr. It's a treat, you really should go check it out.

The retired couple, still living in the two-story house in which they raised their children, find that their home needs less and less work as the years go by. Plumbing replaced ten years ago never leaks or clogs, though can still be heard, most noticeably when a faucet has been left running. The light over the stairwell hasn’t needed a bulb replaced in decades. Small courtesies that the couple don’t really notice. 

During spring cleaning, the Wife remarks on how little dust is clinging to the highest shelves. And her Husband can’t tell a difference, after washing all the windows. Both of them notice when the hardwood floors, installed twenty years ago, look almost-new after a thorough mopping, as though the scuff and wear was cleaned up with the dirt. 

When the grown Children visit, they watch with bemusement how their Mother doesn’t act surprised when the garden hose self-adjusts the water pressure, or that dishes left drying in the rack are later found in the cupboards. After considering the remodeling [the hours of love and labor poured into making a  _Dream Home_ ] their Parents have done over the course of their inhabitancy, the Children fondly decide that their childhood home is responding in kind. And so they only laugh; every time their Mother digs through cupboards for a spice, only to find it by the stove, or their Father accidentally turns off a light that had turned itself on. 

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to my parents, and the home they raised me in.  
> (Thank my dad for the title!)
> 
> Originally written by me and posted on my Tumblr [here](http://graffitinight.tumblr.com/post/154425090102/rexnorh-varkarrus-winterwombat-when-magic). Please do not repost.


End file.
